Stanley S. Pickett, lawyers in Greenbelt, MD, Maryland

Loss of Hearing as an Occupational Disease

Occupational hearing loss is a prevalent condition in workers employed in noisy environments such as factories and repair shops. Several states recognize the gradual loss of hearing as a compensable condition and such recognition has also taken place under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act. Generally, a six-month waiting period is required prior to the filing of a hearing loss claim and the employee must be removed from the noisy environment for that time frame. The degree of impairment is generally based on speech frequencies with points ranging between total deafness and no compensable deafness. The improvement in hearing with the use of a hearing aid is not accounted for.More...

Employer's Indemnification of Third Party

Generally, workers' compensation is the exclusive way to hold an employer liable for an employee's injury. However, the "exclusiveness" principle will give way in the face of an express contractual provision that the employer will indemnify a third party for payments it is required to make to an injured employee. For example, consider the employer who leases heavy construction equipment from an equipment rental facility. The lease agreement may contain a clause providing that, if a worker of the employer is injured while operating the equipment, the employer will wholly indemnify the equipment rental facility for any damages the facility is called upon to pay to the worker.More...

Disability Under the "Odd-Lot" Doctrine

The "odd-lot" doctrine is an avenue by which a worker may be found to be totally disabled based on unemployability rather than just the degree to which he is injured. It provides that, although a worker is not completely unable to work, his condition is such that he will not be regularly employed in any reasonably stable area of the labor market. The hallmark of placement in the "odd-lot" category is a job prospect that is irregular and unpredictable. More...

Employer Misconduct

Exclusivity RuleMore...

Employee Susceptibility to Occupational Disease

Every employee brings his own idiosyncrasies to his employment. This includes pre-existing weaknesses, hypersensitivities, and other susceptibilities that could impact the employee's health. The minority rule in workers' compensation coverage is that there is no recovery for an occupational disease where a pre-existing condition, such as asthma, contributed to the resulting disease. The minority states consider the disease to be the result of the employee's own innate susceptibility rather than to the peculiar conditions of his employment.More...